Abi, Me and the BBC! – Savvy Cinderella on TV?

It has been a fun day today, combined with TV horror.  Abi from ASAP called in to collect the donated dresses, and my ex hire dresses, which will be going off to Zambia on an evening flight on Friday.  She is such a lively, bubbly fun lady, and full of passion about her charity work. The BBC popped along to Savvy Towers in fabulously sunny Manea to record the collection, and interview Abi about the charity, and also to ask me why Savvy Cinderella was supporting this brilliant cause.

Sue Dougan from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire had problems interviewing me for radio, as I suffer from a terminal camera/microphone phobia. . She chased me around the bridal showroom trying to get me to sound vaguely intelligent, and to hear my words of wisdom on  why we can all consider donating to ASAP.  Sue has a wonderful warming and soothing voice, made specially for radio, which only made my high pitch screeching even more noticeable.   It has to be said I have a face for radio. But, she didn’t give up, and after hours in the BBC cutting rooms, I am told she managed to put together a really good interview, which judging by the calls and donations given was well received by the listeners of her show.  I am sure she can appreciate how hard it has been for the BBC reporter today, who will now have to go into her cutting room over in Birmingham, armed with enough supplies to get her through a really  long day, as she tries to assemble something out of today’s filming.  Who would have thought that opening a door could require so may takes.  I can easily make the most simplest of instructions seem like an audition tape for the Krypton factor. I walk and talk all the time, but couldn’t manage one foot in front of the other today.

In my defence, I did not ask to appear on camera, and as regular readers to these bloggings will know, I did say I wouldn’t ever go on TV without the aid of a blacked out screen and an actors voice. But, brilliant BBC reporter lady was very very persuasive, and almost begged, and pointed out she had travelled a long way without even the promise of a Starbucks to get this story. So reluctantly I agreed, and without the aid of a hairbrush or makeup lady I did my bit for charity.  Abi is ever the professional (ex B.A. Trolley Dolly, so she has the perfect hair and makeup gene, and is used to people staring at her, as she demonstrated how to buckle your seat belt and blow the whistle on the life jacket. – I did resist the urge to point to where the exits were when we first met).  The BBC thought it would give a good balance to the interview, and they will also be hopefully showing footage of Abi in Zambia so it follows through from donation to delivery.  Abi’s piece went very well, and she looked natural and at ease throughout. Then came the ‘interview with the airheaded Savvy Cinderella’.    How can talking into a camera be so hard?  I talk every minute of the day, according to my husband I don’t ever stop , but once I was sitting in front of the camera, everything shut down.  I spluttered and stuttered, and pulled extraordinary faces throughout, and the interview was interrupted a number of times by people collecting parcels, delivering parcels and general day to day work related stuff.  But our wonderful reporter carried on regardless, and kept her exasperation to herself, and tried to put me at ease as she soldiered on.  She asked tough questions, like ‘can you tell me your name?’ then ‘can you spell your name for me,’ ( I think I fluffed that one) and finally ‘can you tell me your age?’   At this point I did have a bit of a diva strop as I wasn’t expecting such in depth full on probing questioning. I panicked, I could lie but then everyone who knows me and the viewing public would know that I lied, I could add on 10 years so people would think I didn’t look so bad for my age, (fingers crossed)  or I could mumble.  I chose the mumbling, with the insistence that that be kept confidential or they would hear from my solicitors.

I would like it to be known that the ASAP charity is my charity work for the year.  I could run the London Marathon, or do the Great Northern Run (my superhero cousin Annette does that one every year, so I like to think she runs on behalf of the entire family), or I could skydive or bungy jump or even sit in a bath of baked beans for 24 hours, but no, I have plumped for appearing on TV to support the charity of my choice.  The stress and humiliation I have endured on behalf of this charity surely will be enough to get me into heaven?   I don’t expect an MBE for my contribution although I feel Abi will be getting something lovely from Her Majesty in years to come because she has put her heart and soul into it, but please be kind to me, and don’t call me just to laugh at me or to point out my humongous flaws and afflictions.  Believe me I am well aware of them all. so please, no jokes about wide screen tv’s,  etc.,  In short, best not even mention it.

What I would love to have said, rather than my tongue tied gibberish, is that ASAP is a really lovely charity, that gives girls from Zambia the chance to get married in beautiful wedding gowns, that they can afford, and will make each bride feel special, this in turn will help fund Aids/HIV awareness through educational videos.  I love that Abi is able to do this for these girls, and I am so very proud to be able to be part of it in some small way.  I have always believed that every bride deserves to feel amazing on her wedding day, and that is now with the help of ASAP even truer than ever. The donations we have received have been so generous, and the dresses donated from all walks of life, from recent weddings, cancelled weddings, donated due to divorce or lack or storage space, or simply because the dress made a bride so happy that she wants to share that with other brides.  One of the most interesting dresses was from a lovely lady in March, who donated her dress from her  1963 wedding,  and her mothers dress from 1937, complete with original pattern and photo’s. The dresses were in lovely condition, and the pattern will be as useful today as it was all those years ago.

So. the excitement of  having the BBC has come and gone, and life is back to normal this afternoon.  I am busy with large bridal parties tonight and tomorrow night, as well as the usual day to day appointments and office life in general.  Hopefully I will hear from Abi on Friday before she flies off to Zambia in the evening with the dresses, and get to speak to her on her return to find out how they were received in Africa.  I do not know when the interview/recording will be going out, but I hope that the publicity ASAP gets will be enough to get more dresses, veils and tiara’s donated for when Abi comes here next time.

Thank you for all your help, interest and support.  To the lovely readers of my blog from all over the world, I really appreciate the offers of help, but I do understand the postal costs make it almost impossible to donate, but I really do thank you, and appreciate the offers, and it is so nice to know that there are so many generous brides all over the UK, and the world who would be happy to donate their own wedding dress for such a lovely cause.

I hope I don’t put anyone off their tea one evening later on this week.  I have offered a large bribe to the reporter to pixellate my face, but she was far too honest to take my money.  So hopefully this will bring in lots of lovely donations for Abi, and I am now off to complete my application for ‘How to look good Naked’  and  ’10 years younger’, and I really am going to start my diet.  Oh, the shame.

Have a lovely evening everyone.

Sue xx